- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
-
Introduction: Life’s Sensibilities -
1 Valuable Viruses -
2 More Like a Waterfall -
3 Alarmones -
4 Early Sensibilities -
5 Smart Bacteria -
6 Ancient Architects -
7 Others -
8 Nested Communities -
9 Cosmic Rhythms of Life -
10 Life’s Tectonics -
11 Evolutionary Illumination -
12 Symbiogenesis in Russia -
13 From Movement to Sensation -
14 Packaging DNA -
15 Lemurs and Split Chromosomes -
16 Interspecies Hybrids -
17 Origins of the Immune System -
18 Medical Symbiotics -
19 Animal Consciousness -
20 Brains and Symbols -
21 Thermodynamics and Thought -
22 “I Know Who You Are; I Know Where You Live” -
23 Cultural Networks - Bibliography
-
Appendix A: Major Groups of Living Organisms -
Appendix B: The International Geological Time Scale (Time-Rock Divisions) - Glossary
- About the Authors
- Index
- [UNTITLED]
Brains and Symbols
Brains and Symbols
- Chapter:
- (p.232) (p.233) 20 Brains and Symbols
- Source:
- Chimeras and Consciousness
- Author(s):
John Skoyles
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
This chapter develops the concept that the human brain has evolved to the point that changing symbols are integrated into brain neurobiology. This development led to notable evolutionary consequences. It uses “chimera” in order to refer to the blending of symbols with the human brain’s neural apparatus. It describes how symbols manage the brain-change trick. This chapter suggests human evolution, neuroscience, and cultural anthropology are a single phenomenon that need to be studied together. It shows that the information processing of the brain depends on cultural symbols and on transmitted learning.
Keywords: human brain, cultural symbols, neurobiology, chimera, human evolution, neuroscience, cultural anthropology, information processing, learning
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- Title Pages
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
-
Introduction: Life’s Sensibilities -
1 Valuable Viruses -
2 More Like a Waterfall -
3 Alarmones -
4 Early Sensibilities -
5 Smart Bacteria -
6 Ancient Architects -
7 Others -
8 Nested Communities -
9 Cosmic Rhythms of Life -
10 Life’s Tectonics -
11 Evolutionary Illumination -
12 Symbiogenesis in Russia -
13 From Movement to Sensation -
14 Packaging DNA -
15 Lemurs and Split Chromosomes -
16 Interspecies Hybrids -
17 Origins of the Immune System -
18 Medical Symbiotics -
19 Animal Consciousness -
20 Brains and Symbols -
21 Thermodynamics and Thought -
22 “I Know Who You Are; I Know Where You Live” -
23 Cultural Networks - Bibliography
-
Appendix A: Major Groups of Living Organisms -
Appendix B: The International Geological Time Scale (Time-Rock Divisions) - Glossary
- About the Authors
- Index
- [UNTITLED]
